


Doorsteps

by kathkin



Series: Summerpornathon 2013 [5]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-28
Updated: 2013-07-28
Packaged: 2017-12-21 16:27:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/902404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathkin/pseuds/kathkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vaguely Victorian AU in which Vivian is a wealthy lady and Freya is a werecat who sleeps on doorsteps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doorsteps

**Author's Note:**

> For challenge 4 at the 2013 summerpornathon: sleep.

Freya _would_ be sleeping on her favourite doorstep the first time she got caught sleeping rough.

It was a nice doorstep. It had a thick mat that was almost like a mattress and a wide bootscraper she could prop her feet up on. She was fast and comfortably asleep one Sunday morning when a pointy-toed shoe kicked her in the side.

“You can’t sleep here!” said the owner of the shoe. “Get up! I shouldn’t have to step over tramps to get out of my own front door!”

Freya looked up, blinking until the pink blur resolved itself into a blonde lady in a fancy hat. “I’ve slept here before. You’re not usually up so early,” she said, too groggy for politeness.

“Hmph,” said the fancy lady. Then she said something that left Freya truly gobsmacked. “Well, I suppose you’d best come in. It’s not proper, a girl like you sleeping on the streets.”

*

When people asked Freya – as they were sometimes wont to do – how a ‘pretty thing’ like her came to be sleeping on doorsteps she normally told them she was Cursed. It was true in more ways than one and it frightened them off whether they believed her or not.

“I’m cursed,” she said.

“Of course you are,” said the lady – Vivian, her name was – as she pushed a plate of last night’s leftovers into Freya’s hands. “Eat up.”

“I turn into a giant cat under the light of the full moon,” said Freya. Vivian clucked her tongue.

“Telling tall tales won’t get you very far, you know.”

*

The first night, Freya slept under the stairs. The second night, she slept in an empty room in the servants’ quarters. The house was all shut up and almost empty.

“Papa’s away in the colonies till March,” Vivian explained. “You know, he’s always saying I should do more to help in the community. He’s a real philanthropist. That’s someone who gives money away,” she added hurriedly.

Freya knew what a philanthropist was, but she didn’t say so.

“Sometimes I eat people,” she said. “One time the morning after a full moon I threw up and there was an ear in it.”

“You’re an odd one,” said Vivian. “Here, try this one.” She tossed Freya a cast-off dress.

*

After the first week, Freya slept in the guest bedroom, which had a vast, soft bed of a kind she’d never had before. She slept late every morning, lounging around and exploring ever soft fold of the eiderdown.

But then the full moon came around and she had to sneak out; she woke up in the morning streaked with blood and wandered the alleys of London balefully until she arrived back at Vivian’s house without meaning to.

When Vivian found her sleeping on the doorstep the next morning all she did was cluck her tongue and drag her inside for a bath.

“How did you get so dirty, anyway?” she said as she brushed Freya’s hair out afterwards.

“I don’t remember. I think I ate someone.”

“Well, maybe you should sleep in the cellar next full moon, then.”

*

She never got around to leaving Vivian’s room that night. As day turned to night the two of them curled up together in Vivian’s bed – even bigger than the guest bed – and slept warm and close.

Freya woke up the next morning to the feel of Vivian’s toes tickling the soles of her feet, Vivian’s breath soft and wet on the back of her neck. She didn’t realise how close they were pressed till she rolled over and found Vivian’s lips against hers.

She tried to pull back and apologise but Vivian said, “shush, you silly thing,” and kissed her again.

Vivian lifted her borrowed nightgown and pressed kisses to her flat belly until she found a ticklish spot and Freya giggled.

She still thought Vivian was just teasing until her tongue dipped into Freya’s tummy button in a way that made her gasp; then her head dipped and her tongue was sliding in between Freya’s folds.

She tugged Freya apart gently and then her mouth was back, pressing a messy kiss right where Freya was most sensitive, right where it made her squeal.

Vivian licked and sucked and explored till Freya’s thighs were trembling and she was cursing Vivian with every word she’d learned on the streets, and two of Vivian’s fingers pressed up inside her, pushing until she came.

*

Freya woke up again midmorning with Vivian’s face buried in the tangles of her hair, just stirring.

“I really am cursed, you know.”

“Yes, well,” said Vivian. “Don’t tell Papa when he comes back. He’d make you leave, and I want to keep you.”

“But –”

“Shush, now. Go back to sleep.”


End file.
